"We should note that when we measure global wealth inequality using market exchange rates, rather than purchasing power parities, then there is even more inequality," the report noted.
"The global bottom 50% owns less than 1% of total wealth and the global top 10% nearly 82% of it. To summarize ... the world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality."
The World Bank noted that although global poverty has more recently resumed its pre-pandemic downward trajectory, between 75 million and 95 million additional people could be living in extreme poverty in 2022 compared to pre-COVID-19 projections, due to the lingering effects of the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine, and rising inflation.
Research suggests that the effects of the current crises will almost certainly be felt in most countries through 2030. Under these conditions, the goal of bringing the global absolute poverty rate to less than 3 percent by 2030, which was already at risk before the pandemic, is now beyond reach, unless countries take swift, significant, and substantial policy action, The World Bank believes.
